Possibly, but it's hard work . . . . .
My main interest in life is metaphysics. Why things are the way they are. Considering the state of the world today, it's a consuming interest. Why do people do the stupid things they do, in the face of all logic and sense. Why do the leaders of nations do the stupid things they do, and their countrymen (and women) follow along in the face of all logic and common sense?
If you've done the New Age rounds, you will have no doubt, come across the idea of "you create your own reality" or YCYOR for short. The idea is that if you only give attention to the things you want around you, the unwanted stuff, the problems, worries, conflicts, bad hair days, etc. will go away. By praying for and "affirming" the reality you want to inhabit, your life should flow smoothly and happily. Looking up and around from your own little life, you may notice that a lot of other folks are also having conflicts, problems, and often, have considerably more to worry about than bad hair days. Most people have good hearts and want to do something about that. The idea of YCYOR gets extended to concentrating on the good things you want for these people. You may pray for them or send "love and light" to them. It seems a noble idea.
But, does it work? Look around. Doesn't seem to. Hasn't seems to work in any really effective fashion, even though it's been tried before:
"Over sixty million people died [in WWII] because God didn't do what everybody thought he should do. C.S. Lewis struggled with this issue in the latter part of his life. He saw clearly that, before World War II, practically every human being on the planet was praying—to Jesus, God the Father, the Virgin Mary, Allah, Buddha and whoever else you can name or mention, so all the bases were covered—that this terrible thing would not happen. The memory of the previous “Great War” was still fresh in the mind of mankind. They remembered the horrible carnage and vowed, never again!
In the end, after the most mighty cry of prayer in human memory, rising from the earth, almost one-third of the world was uninhabitable and sixty-five million human beings were dead.
That was God’s answer to prayer.
That was the result of the "power of positive thinking."
THINK ABOUT IT.“
"Over sixty million people died [in WWII] because God didn't do what everybody thought he should do. C.S. Lewis struggled with this issue in the latter part of his life. He saw clearly that, before World War II, practically every human being on the planet was praying—to Jesus, God the Father, the Virgin Mary, Allah, Buddha and whoever else you can name or mention, so all the bases were covered—that this terrible thing would not happen. The memory of the previous “Great War” was still fresh in the mind of mankind. They remembered the horrible carnage and vowed, never again!
In the end, after the most mighty cry of prayer in human memory, rising from the earth, almost one-third of the world was uninhabitable and sixty-five million human beings were dead.
That was God’s answer to prayer.
That was the result of the "power of positive thinking."
THINK ABOUT IT.“
And yet, in the back of the mind, the idea won't go away. Could it be that there is a germ of truth to it?
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I do a lot of net surfing. For starters, it's faster than going to the library and often times a lot cheaper than buying out the local metaphysical bookstore (which I have come close to doing along the way.) These days I mostly concentrate on Fourth Way-type the material by G. Gurdjieff, P.D. Ouspensky, Carlos Castenada, and lately Boris Mouravieff. I guess I came to settle on them, because they don't coddle you. Spiritual development, in their view is hard, exhausting, often unhappy work. As a former professional dancer, I know in my bones that any kind worthwhile progress only comes from hard, exhausting, often unhappy work. A real contrast to the cotton-candy notions served up by most New Age books and sites, i.e. "Say this chant at sunrise and sunset each day, and it will raise the vibrations of the planet and bring about world peace". Really? See the quote above.
Yet the idea persists. Does how you see the world have an effect on it? The early experiments regarding the nature of light got things rolling. You know, light can behave like a particle or like a wave depending on how the observer set up the observing equipment. Then there was Schrodinger's Cat, the thought experiment where a cat in a sealed box seemed to be both alive and not, until it was observed. All states of reality seemed possible until they were observed. If you didn't pay attention to the hard math of the idea, it seemed logical that choosing what you observed consistently and with intent should allow you to shape your reality. Especially if you had a whole whack of people concentrating on the same thing. YCYOR. But it still doesn't work. Look around at the world today. War, famine, thousands persecuted for any number of reason. Thing suck all over.
In the course of surfing these topics, I came across a section of an article than among other things, discusses this very idea. There is extension of quantum physics called Event Enhanced Quantum Theory or EEQT for short, being researched by Arkadiusz Jadczyk. It's near the end of a page by his wife, author Laura Knight Jadczyk
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According to EEQT if the expectations of the observer are close to the actual state of the system, the system jumps, more often than not, into more organized, less chaotic state.
If, on the other hand, the expectation of the observer is close to the negation of the actual state (that is when the observer's beliefs are closer to being false than to being true according to the ACTUAL state - the objective reality), then the state of the system, typically, will jump into a state that is more chaotic, less organized. Moreover, it will take, as a rule, much longer time to accomplish such a jump.
In other words, if the observer's knowledge of the actual state is close to the truth, then the very act of observation and verification causes a jump quickly, and the resulting state is more organized. If the observer's knowledge of the actual state is false, then it takes usually a long time to cause a change in the state of the system, and the resulting state is more chaotic.
What this means is that order can be brought out of chaos by observing chaos as it IS and not pretending that it is otherwise.
In short, everyone who "believes" in an attempt to "create reality" that is different from what IS, increases the chaos and entropy. If your beliefs are orthogonal to the truth, no matter how strongly you believe them, you are essentially coming into conflict with how the Universe views itself and I can assure you, you ain't gonna win that contest. You are inviting destruction upon yourself and all who engage in this "staring down the universe" exercise with you.
On the other hand, if you are able to view the Universe as it views itself, objectively, without blinking, and with acceptance, you then become more "aligned" with the Creative energy of the universe and your very consciousness becomes a transducer of order. Your energy of observation, given unconditionally, can bring order to chaos, can create out of infinite potential.
Ok. So how does that possibly apply to one's life?
Well, as an example, how many of you have a friend/sister/brother/child that persists in making bad choices. Choices about relationships, jobs or even more fun, "lifestyle choices" (drugs, alcohol, sex etc) You love them, you care about them, and you are there to support and help them, and in many cases, clean up the mess. You may do this over and over. Objectively, is it working? If so, your life should have become more organized, more stable. No serial crises, midnight calls, covering bills. No? It's still going on?
Then maybe your observation of the situation is flawed. Subjective. After all, you can make decisions based only on the information you gather. If you aren't getting all the information available, then perhaps the observer (YOU) isn't able to perceive the available data accurately. In Fourth Way thought, this is sometimes called a reading error. So what is blinding you? It could be family patterns of behaviors playing out over and over again, cultural biases, or simply the natural desire to protect those we love. But the important question is: Does what you do help? Do your actions effect a change in the situation?
In short, everyone who "believes" in an attempt to "create reality" that is different from what IS, increases the chaos and entropy. If your beliefs are orthogonal to the truth, no matter how strongly you believe them, you are essentially coming into conflict with how the Universe views itself and I can assure you, you ain't gonna win that contest. You are inviting destruction upon yourself and all who engage in this "staring down the universe" exercise with you.
So the first order of business would seem to be to correct the reading error in ourselves. This part of the beginning of the hard, exhausting, often unhappy work that true spiritual teachers talk about. Further, just as a fish probably has no idea of water, we can't see the buffers we have created against the data we find unpleasant to acknowledge (e.g. the sister with the string of loser boyfriends who just isn't getting it). We need the help of other people who demonstrate that they handle the same situations with much better results. They can see in us what we can't see in ourselves.
In other words, if the observer's knowledge of the actual state is close to the truth, then the very act of observation and verification causes a jump quickly, and the resulting state is more organized.
As we get to understand ourselves better, and compensate for the knee-jerk behaviour responses caused by family, cultural and other programming, we may be able to start making better decisions about life. It may involve not riding to the rescue of the person who continues to repeat destructive behaviour. It may involve leaving a job or a relationship that only drains you. Or it may mean staying for practical reasons of survival, but being very clear to yourself about why. It means telling the truth about you to yourself. It means to stop LYING.
The more your observations and interactions with your environment are appropriate to the circumstances of that environment, the more orderly it ought to become. That may be one way to measure the accuracy (objectivity) of your perceptions.
On the other hand, if you are able to view the Universe as it views itself, objectively, without blinking, and with acceptance, you then become more "aligned" with the Creative energy of the universe and your very consciousness becomes a transducer of order. Your energy of observation, given unconditionally, can bring order to chaos, can create out of infinite potential.
It's no that your life becomes problem-free, but that you are more capable of making accurate, effective decisions about your life's circumstances as they unfold.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
So, how can this possibly save the world? Just a water wears away rock, each person who can learn to overcome their own programming and begin to see their portion of the world as accurately and objectively as possible, may add to the overall "orderliness" of the world:
What this means is that order can be brought out of chaos by observing chaos as it IS and not pretending that it is otherwise.
By flowing with and responding appropriately to the world as it IS, continuously enlarging our areas of awareness, we may be able to accomodate an ever larger order of events that may befall us:
Humanity appears to be moving through a momentous cycle of change,encompassing chaos and confusion, death and destruction. Why? Conspiracieshave existed since the time of Cain and Abel. Facts of history have beenaltered to support the illusion. It’s no longer a question of whether or notdeception occurs - it does - but whether a sufficient number of human beingscan see through the deceptions, thus creating a counter-force for positivechange - the “gold of humanity” - during the upcoming times of Macro-CosmicQuantum Shift.
If you find these ideas interesting, you may want to check out a longer article called "The Wave".
It's quite a ride
Blue Ibis
